The Top 100 Albums of 2016, Part 4 (40-21)

Top 25 EPs
Top 100 Albums — Part 1 (100-81)
Top 100 Albums — Part 2 (80-61)
Top 100 Albums — Part 3 (60-41)

40. Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith- Ears

Ears is an album of light contrasts. Much of it is very digital sounding, with Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith handling a wide of range of synths and digital production. However, there are also light woodwind and brass instruments that are frequently layered on top of those synths. This contrasts appears in the vocals as well, with Smith’s airy voice digitally filtered and often mixed lower than the instrumentation. This style works to give Ears a tender and oddly upbeat feel. It’s an album for night time listening that’s coated in cheery indie pop paint. My only complaint is that many songs end by fading out. It’s an obvious stylistic choice, but I would love to hear some of the tracks expand, especially when the 11 minute closer, “Existence in Unfurling,” is so fantastic.
Spotify | Bandcamp

39. Brian Eno- The Ship

The Ship is the first Brian Eno album in over a decade to feature vocals. I wouldn’t say that’s necessarily the album’s strongest individual aspect, but it fits within its larger contest. Even with the vocals and a more pop-oriented closer, this is still largely an ambient album, and one that creates the ambiance of sinking ship. There are parts where everything is drifting slowly and lost in the open space of the ocean, while at other times its more dramatic and even cinematic sounding. That sound is interlaced with samples from old news broadcasts of sinking ships, adding even more claustrophobia to what is already a tense listen. The 20+ minute opener is the real crux of The Ship, but its closing cover of The Velvet Underground’s “I’m Set Free” is another highlight. That track is a gorgeous cover on its own, but it’s stunning in how dramatically it shifts from the rest of the record. It’s hard to explain, but it’s the perfect way to end an album that essentially amounts to being about death.
Spotify

38. Moonsorrow- Jumalten aika

Moonsorrow have always existed on the bleaker, more spiritual side of folk metal. They make longer, more atmosphere songs that are less “fun” and more rooted in the Pagan mythology of the folk music they drawn from. Jumalten aika (Age of the Gods) is their darkest album yet, with more black metal influences, contrasted with gorgeous moments of minimalist folk music. Often times, the folk rhythms will merge within the heavier sections, and Moonsorrow have always done an outstanding job of building their lengthy tracks. Much of Jumalten aika sounds cold and nature-like, even in its heaviest sections, and to be clear, this is the heaviest Moonsorrow have ever sounded. It’s also one of the year’s most epic metal albums, but it reaches that sound in a way that is also beautiful and atmospheric.
Spotify

37. eMMplekz- Rook to TN34

Rook to TN34 is like what would have happen if King Missile made an industrial album. It’s a weird spoken word project with seemingly nonsensical social commentary played over industrial, techno, and electropop beats. It’s strange and charming, but all fits together in the end. There’s a sound collage feel to Rook to TN34, as Baron Mordant’s mundane delivery and one-liners sound like he might as well be pulling from random sources. The production adds to this feels, with Ekoplekz moving from brutal to upbeat in a way that fits with the oddity, and at times poignancy, of Mordant’s rambling. The lyrics are funny, clever, and often dark, but more than anything, they end up telling a fairly coherent story despite initially sounding like nonsense.
Spotify | Bandcamp

36. Masami Akita & Eiko Ishibashi- Kouen Kyoudai

Wading through Merzbow’s massive discography is a daunting task. He’ll release a double digit number of albums in any given year, and to make finding his material even more confusing, he’s released this collaboration with Eiko Ishibashi under his given name. Ishibashi is no stranger to noise music as well, although she will sometimes venture out into more accessible styles. That makes for an interesting contrast on Kouen Kyoudai, which builds slowly to Merzbow’s ear-piercing noise. Before that, Ishibashi plays a very sombre piano, and mixes in drums underneaths the harsh noise. The motifs here relate to playgrounds and childhood in general, and it sounds like childhood memories turning to nightmares. Out of all the albums on this list, I’m confident Kouen Kyoudai is the least accessible. However, for those who appreciate harsh noise, there’s some interesting layering here and a sentimentality unusual for the genre.
Spotify | Bandcamp

35. Katatonia- The Fall of Hearts

The Fall of Hearts is somewhat of a turning point for Katatonia. Their last record, Dead End Kings, felt like a default album. It wasn’t bad, but it was the first Katatonia album that really made me think the band was running out of ideas. Thankfully, this isn’t actually the case. The Fall of Hearts has them smartly taking their recent progressive influences and dialing back on some of their heavier parts, but in a way that still sounds distinctly Katatonia. There’s still a hint of gothic rock and a ton of atmosphere, but there’s also a more reserved style that allows Jonas Renske’s airy vocals to shine. This style also allows for more guitar solos and instrumental variation, as it’s simultaneously one of the more gloomy and technical albums Katatonia has released in some time. Yes, it’s their farthest away from doom metal yet, but Brave Murder Day Part 2 is never coming. This is the album that makes sense for Katatonia in 2016, and it builds on what the band has been doing well for the last decade, while leaving behind the parts that were becoming stagnant.
Spotify

34. Beyoncé- Lemonade

No album made more of a cultural impact in 2016 than Lemonade. Chances are that you already you know what this, and statistically you have better chance of having heard this than any other album on this list. However, if you haven’t, I recommend it to even non-pop fans. It’s really an excellent album worthy of the praise it received this year. Beyoncé does an excellent job of storytelling on Lemonade, fusing the concepts of a woman dealing with the unfaithfulness of her partner and the struggles of being of a black woman in America. Those two concepts come together well, and it makes Lemonade a black woman power anthem that became a topic of controversy in 2016. Its lyrics don’t mince words, both in terms of how personal Beyoncé gets in her stories of cheating (people spent much of the year trying to figure out who “Becky with the good hair” was) and in its afrocentric imagery. Booming production and a strong vocal performance round things out to make this an album that won’t be soon forgotten, even in a current pop culture state that has the memory of a goldfish.
Tidal (subscription based)

33. Shabaka and the Ancestors- Wisdom of Elders

Nothing about the components of Wisdom of Elders is especially unusual. It’s a throwback to the days of spiritual jazz, but takes strong influences from African music as well. That combination isn’t new, and even last year there was an excellent spiritual jazz that found an audience in Kamasai Waashington’s The Epic. However, while Washington’s record was more ambitious, Shabaka Hutchings’ record feels tighter. Even at well over an hour, Wisdom of Elders flows beautifully and is easy to get lost in. It’s just as easy to forget how large the band is (eight musicians, seven from Johannesburg where the album was recorded) with how well the instruments play off of each other. The African roots of the album also merge well, and sound like a natural extension of its Pharaoh Sanders-inspired rhythms. Again, Wisdom of Elders isn’t going to revolutionize modern jazz, but it’s certainly among the most purely enjoyable experiences I had with the genre this year.
Spotify | Bandcamp

32. Ka- Honor Killed the Samurai

After following up his chess-themed album cover with a title like Honor Killed the Samurai, I wouldn’t blame you if you expected Ka to sound like a long lost Wu-Tang Clan member. However, while the motifs are similar, Ka has a laid back flow and style all his own. You hear the sound of golden age New York hip-hop in his music, but it’s surrounded by a dark atmosphere and a lack of aggression that gives Honor Killed the Samurai a mysterious zen-like vibe. Ka’s quiet voice fits the samurai theme, as he comes off as calm and introspective, like you’re having a quiet conversation with him. The production helps this as well, with samples from martial arts films and overlooked jazz classics. It fits perfectly with Ka’s vocals, allowing the listener to vibe to his atmosphere and focus on his introspective, clever, and often dark lyrics.
Spotify

31. Skáphe- Skáphe²

In a year with many fantastic black metal releases, I’m not sure I heard another one as disgusting as Skáphe². It absolutely nails the raw sound that I love from black metal, while finding new ways to innovate the genre. Psychedelic sounds are common throughout the record, as are moments of noise and layered atmosphere that gives Skáphe both a weight and a darkness. Everything here just feels so dirty, even for black metal. It moves at a methodical pace, as if Skáphe are slowly drowning the listener in mud and filth. Honestly, the imagery of drowning fits the album well. There’s a dark, depressing mood that runs through Skáphe², and it only adds to the heaviness. Obviously, this isn’t going to be for everyone, but those who like their metal as far outside of mainstream aesthetics as possible will find a special kind of stench here.
Bandcamp

30. Swans- The Glowing Man

The Glowing Man is the first Swans album in awhile that didn’t completely blow me away. That says more about the quality of their recent work than it does about this record, however, as The Glowing Man is still an impressive epic. Like the two albums before it, this is a long album, sprawling two discs and nearly two hours. It feels a little too long, but that’s more because it takes awhile to get going. The second disc is the real highlight, with an immense amount of tension that only Swans could provide. Michael Gira has always been a master of repetition, and that’s never been more true on 25 minute epics like “Frankie M” and the title track. As a whole, the record is on the more subdued side for Swans, yet there’s an even greater obsession with rough textures and dissonance. It’s dense, sometimes disturbing, and even beautiful in certain moments.
Spotify

29. The Dillinger Escape Plan- Dissociation

The supposedly final album from The Dillinger Escape Plan doesn’t necessarily reinvent the wheel, but it’s in many ways what the legendary mathcore band has building to for some time now. Dissociation is full of sudden rhythmic changes, moments of pure chaos, sounds that combine the different types of heaviness that come from punk and metal music, and sudden shifts to melody that bring it all together into a coherent package. They continue to tighten their style on each album, so their core sound continues to feel fresh, and there are plenty of moments of true experimentation as well. Few “math” bands can successfully venture into jazz or electronic music with as much success as DEP can, and the variety is truly something to behold, considering how absurdly chaotic their core sound can be. It probably won’t convert anyone who wasn’t already into The Dillinger Escape Plan, but it’s hard to imagine any fan not enjoying this album. It’s an outstanding mixture of everything they’ve done in their 20 year career, and a reminder of why this band has been so important to modern heavy music.
Spotify

28. clipping.- Splendor & Misery

clipping. let their aggressive side go wild on their Wriggle EP earlier in 2016, but their third full length album is a huge departure for them. Splendor & Misery is a dense and focused afrofuturist concept album a slave (only named Cargo #2331), a prison breakout, an AI computer. It’s an album that touches on a number of interesting themes and is richly detailed between the music and lyrics, but I don’t want to spoil where the story goes. I will just say that this is one of the tightest hip-hop concept albums I’ve ever heard, and it uses clipping.’s trademark static and wall-of-noise “beats” to set a claustrophobic space atmosphere and convey its message. There’s also direct influence from gospel musicand plenty of references to hip-hop history and afrofuturist novels. It’s a dense listen and understanding its many intricacies requires a time commitment far beyond its relatively short run time. However, Splendor & Misery is a step forward artistically for industrial hip-hop and will reward listeners patient enough to give it a chance.
Spotify | Bandcamp | Youtube

27. Blood Incantation- Starspawn

Maybe some of my love for the brand of grimy lo-fi death metal found on Blood Incantation’s debut is due to the sheer number of overproduced tech death albums that came out in 2016. Starspawn is just stands out so much in the death metal scene, as they achieve a real rawness that is rare for modern bands in the genre. In some ways it feels a throwback to early 90s death metal, but it doesn’t sound dated either. There’s plenty of modern influences here, especially from doom metal, the current wave of atmospheric metal, and even the tech death that it does so well to differentiate itself from. At its core though, this is brutal and dynamic album, and that’s what matters. It’s honestly very impressive from a technical standpoint, but it’s even more so in terms of how well the songs progress and the mood it creates. Starspawn is an amazing debut and I can’t wait to hear more from Blood Incantation.
Spotify | Bandcamp

26. Innercity Ensemble- III

Innercity Ensemble is a collective of experimental Polish jazz musicians, and they do things a little differently than most free improvisational groups. I’ve always been impressed with how cohesive their projects sound, even with seven musicians from different sides of the experimental world coming together. Their third record takes this even farther, with beautiful passages that take inspiration from different eras and scenes of jazz music, interlaced with folk, noise, and drone. It’s incredibly diverse, and it never feels like the musicians are simply noodling around. This is true even when surprising instruments enter the sound, as the credits include granite blocks, congas, flugelhorns, and two different darabukka players, among plenty of others. It sounds like the musicians had fun recording this, but also focused on getting the sound exactly the way they wanted to. That is to say, it has the positives of improvised music without sounding directionless or overwhelming.
Bandcamp | Youtube

25. Show Me the Body- Body War

Real authentic punk rock can be a hard thing to experiment with. That’s why it’s surprising to hear how much variety and experimentation is crammed into Body War, the debut album from New York post-hardcore band Show Me the Body. The riffs alternate between slow and heavy sludge, harsh industrial, and a funk rhythm that sound like what would happen if Red Hot Chili Peppers got really, really rebellious.  There’s also a strong hip-hop influence on this album, including a surprising strong industrial rap song to close thing out. Body War is constantly changing and feels intense because of it. It’s an abrasive album that somehow feels natural, and it does something different for punk music without losing any of the immediacy and passion necessarily for the genre.
Spotify | Soundcloud | Youtube

24. Solange- A Seat at the Table

There is a song on A Seat at the Table called “F.U.B.U” (For Us By Us), preceded by an interlude in which Master P states “If you don’t understand my record, then you don’t understand me, so this is not for you.” In some ways, there are parts of Solange’s unapologetically afrocentric album that I can’t understand and there parts that do make me feel like an outsider listening to it. That’s fine. I still love it. A Seat at the Table is a record that obviously means something, especially to its performers, and that comes across regardless of how much or how little you understand the significance of a black woman’s hair, for example. Individually, these are fantastic and meaningful pop songs, and they work both in and out of the context of the album. Most of the songs are simply yet beautifully arranged, and use old-school jazz, soul, and R&B as its foundation. The compositions are aided by Solange’s vocal performance, which shows great range in both its technique and emotional depth. That and the obvious passion here makes A Seat at the Table an album can be easily recommend, even to people it’s not necessarily “for.”
Spotify

23. Alcest- Kodama

After a mildly disappointing album in 2012 and a very disappointing album in 2014, Alcest have finally got their intensity and their originality back. As Kodama proves, those two are not necessarily one and the same. Alcest were one of the first bands to mix shoegaze and black metal and are pioneers of the current “blackgaze” scene, but they’ve never been as heavy or “black” as many of their followers or even contemporaries. Kodama is a return to the beautiful, lush side of Alcest that is aided, not dominated, by its heavier moments. The band plays with style and intensity, often moving from spiraling guitars and raw screams to airy dream pop. However, this record also marks a return to Alcest’s flow. No blackgaze band and has been able to flow through a track like Alcest, keeping the dreaminess and beauty intact through its heaviness. Their transitions are the farthest thing from jarring, which is not easy to do with a sound as dominating as black metal. Welcome back, Alecest. We missed you.
Spotify | Bandcamp

22. Car Seat Headrest- Teens of Denial

It’s been a few years since I’ve really gotten into an “indie rock” record (and even longer since I’ve felt like I’ve had an accurate definition of what that term means), but Car Seat Headrest changed that this year. Teens of Denial sounds the early 90s indie rock album I never knew I wanted in 2016. That’s not to say that this is a pure Pavement copycat and could have been released 20 years ago. Far from it. Instead, Teens of Denial is an album that is influenced more directly by the indie rock stars of yesteryear and builds on that in a way that is distinctive to the modern times. Will Toledo’s lyrics deal with his own life as millennial and include some richly detailed stories, some meant to be interpreted more literally than others. The songwriting is a strong point, and Toledo pairs his personal lyrics with musical influences that have obviously left an impact on him. Teens of Denial makes no attempt to hide where it comes from, and it’s more enjoyable because of it. It’s a little too long, but it’s also a damn good lo-fi record that makes a classic style sound relevant in 2016.
Spotify

21. Cult of Luna & Julie Christmas- Mariner

Well, here’s a collaboration I didn’t see coming. Prolific Swedish sludge band Cult of Luna teams up with Julie Christmas, the former frontwoman of criminally underrated New York post-hardcore band Made Out of Babies. Christmas’ raw scream and sharp sung vocals are distinct to say to the least, but the two parties merge well here. The range of Christmas’ voice forces Cult of Luna out of their slow and heavy comfort zone and often into more dynamic territory. That’s not to say this isn’t slow or heavy, as it’s still primarily a sludge album, but it has to take risks to match how dynamic the vocals are. Those risks includes adding more complexity beyond the scope of the usual sludge record, softer segments, and a concept about space that works its way into the instrumentals as well. This results in one of the most interesting and varied albums Cult of Luna have ever made, and one of the most uniquely intense sludge albums in years.
Spotify | Bandcamp

Next: The Top 100 Albums of 2016, Part 5 (20-1)

The Top 100 Albums of 2016, Part 3 (60-41)

Top 25 EPs
Top 100 Albums — Part 1 (100-81)
Top 100 Albums — Part 2 (80-61)

60. Preoccupations- s/t

A new name may not bring an entirely new sound for the Canadian post-punk band formerly known as Viet Cong, but their first release as Preoccupations is a nice step forward. There’s an obvious throwback here to an 80s style, but Preoccupations still maintains their own original sound. Their influences include the traditional post-punk acts, but there are obvious nods to art punk, indie rock, and even darkwave. Preoccupations occupies a space somewhere between new wave and no wave, and does so with a super spacey, slightly noisy sound and some consistently strong songwriting. It isn’t a complete 180 from their Viet Cong days, but it’s a bit tighter, and it’s hard to complain about a band playing post-punk this well in 2016.
Spotify | Bandcamp

59. öOoOoOoOoOo- Samen

Pin-Up Went Down’s Asphodel is back with a new project that takes the basic sound of her old band and makes it even crazier. The best way I can describe Samen is if Pin-Up Went Down added more electronic and jazz elements to their Mr. Bungle-meets-Unexpect blend of avant-garde metal. It’s remarkable how off-the-wall this album can get, while always returning to moments of pure pop fun. It never takes itself too seriously (as you might expect from an album with consecutive tracks called “Fucking Freaky Futile Freddy” and “Meow Meow Frrru”), and it’s full of surprises. Give it a listen and have a blast hearing where it goes.
Spotify | Bandcamp

58. Tomutonttu- Trarat

Tomutonttu is the solo project of Jan Anderzén, the main man behind Finland’s Kemialliset Ystävät. Trarat is his debut under that moniker, and it’s somehow even stranger than your average Kemialliset Ystävät album. It still takes many of the same influences, with psychedelic folk and electronic among the core parts of the sound, and it still has Anderzén’s odd sample choices and liberal interpretations for what can be used as an instrument. However, Trarat is more of an electroacoustic album, and it’s unlike anything else I’ve heard in that style. It’s almost glitch-like in the way that it moves, with odd sounds suddenly starting and stopping at even odder times. Yet underneath that maximalist exterior is a more minimalist folk and drone sound. That combination, strange is at may sound, results in a charming and certainly weird record, and it successfully differentiates itself from Anderzén’s other charming and weird records.
Spotify | Bandcamp

57. Raime- Tooth

Raime’s Tooth is far from the most varied album I heard this year. Most of its songs use a synth line for the entirely of the piece and layer other sounds over and around it. Tooth is either going to drive you insane with its repetition or pull you in with its ambiance. The tracks here are very simple, but they are also are vast and ripe with subtlety. They’re ripe with mystery as well, as there’s a cold, hypnotizing vibe to this record that is goes beyond description. In terms of influences, ambient, industrial, and dub are the most obvious, but Raime also take influence from punk music. That gives Tooth a bit of intensity and even humanity that is often lacking from electronic that is this stripped down.
Spotify | Bandcamp

55. Leonard Cohen- You Want It Darker

The last album from legendary singer/songwriter Leonard Cohen is not only the best he’s put out in nearly two decades, but it’s also one of the most interesting of his career. Like the title suggests, You Want It Darker is a much darker album than the usual Cohen affair. Death, loss, and uncertainty surround this record, but that’s not the say it’s all doom and gloom either. There’s a fight against that darkness that lingers here, and Cohen’s rough delivery brings credence to its lyrics. The strength of the album, like most from Cohen, is its songwriting, but I ended up liking more the arrangements than I usually do from him. The sameness of his vocal performance works here because of how connected the themes are between songs and how willing he is to bring lyrics and instrumental passages back in later tracks. It’s a very different Leonard Cohen album, but an excellent swan song to a legendary career.
Spotify

55. Jachna / Mazurkiewicz / Buhl- Dźwięki ukryte

The Instant Classic label continues to put out gem after gem from the Polish jazz scene, and this collaborative effort from Wojciech Jachna (trumpet), Jacek Mazurkiewicz (double bass), and Jacek Buhl (drums) is one such release. The three instruments merge well together, and both Jachna and Mazurkiewicz contribute electronics to the sound as well. Some of these are softer and play with the melody, while others are add walls of noise to the mix. The chemistry of the trio is simply fantastic, to the point where I would love to know how much of Dźwięki ukryte is improvised. That organization makes it an experimental record that can be approached by those who turned off the by the more dissonant side of free jazz, while also offering something unique to those who aren’t.
Spotify | Bandcamp | Youtube

54. Oathbreaker- Rheia

As one of the more interesting hardcore bands of recent years, Oathbreaker took a huge risk with Rheia. This album represents a major stylistic shift for them, with their crust punk sound changing to a more trendy black metal/shoegaze or “blackgaze” one. Thankfully, Oathbreaker do far more than simply copy Deafheaven or Alcest, and end up with one of the strongest and most original albums to come out of the recent blackgaze wave. The biggest reason for this is Caro Tanghe’s vocals, which translate exceptionally well to the new sound. She maintains her passionate scream from her hardcore days, but can switch to a more blackened growl when necessary and also mix in some vibrato-heavy clean vocals from time to time. Rheia starts to lose steam in his second half, but its highlights and exceptional first half make it must for any fan of the blackgaze sound.
Spotify | Bandcamp

53. NV- Binasu

The debut solo album from Russia’s Kate Shilonosova (NV) is a wonderfully upbeat collection of pop tunes that take elements from all over the 80s pop and electronic spectrum. The result is a catchy and accessible album that also manages to be oddly experimental. The familiar 80s sounds are there, but they way they are put together always sounds just a little strange. Everything always ends up fun, catchy, and pleasant, but with such a waterfall of synth washing over it that it ends up coming across as vaporwave-like with how strange and pleasant it can sound at the same time. This gives Binasu a certain charm that really works with its sound, and the often beautiful yet heavily accented vocals only add to that. It’s certainly simple, but this is also a thoroughly entertaining debut that makes for one of the most fun pop listens of the year.
Spotify | Bandcamp

52. Nails- You Will Never Be One of Us

At just over 20 minutes long, You Will Never Be One of Us is the shortest album on this list. Hell, it wouldn’t even be long for the EP list. But that’s the way hardcore operates. It prioritizes short bursts of intensity, and Nails have certainly made an intense album. This is a non-stop brutal assault of hardcore and extreme metal music, with riffs that sound sludge-y and fast at the same time. While the riffs merge the heaviness of punk and metal, the songwriting takes cues from both as well. Most tracks are brief, with fast riffs and drums that sound like rhythmic assault with a blunt instrument. However, there are also a few solos and bits of melody that pierce through very briefly, giving us just a bit of a break from the pure unadulterated brutality that Nails has to offer.
Spotify

51. Kornél Kovács- The Bells

2016 ended up being a pretty good year for house music, despite its major players being either absent or past their relevancy. However, no house album in 2016 got to the dance roots of the genre more than Kornél Kovács’ The Bells. This is a fun record that slightly tones down the humor Kovács has been known for as a live DJ on his EPs, but still keeps the creativity and playfulness. This are easily the most atmospheric collection of songs Kornél Kovács has released thus far, and it shows Kovács expanding as an artist without losing what makes him great in the first place. That is to say, you can dance to this, and you should. In fact, no album I heard in 2016 was more purely danceable than The Bells, and while it does have a few duds, songs like “BB” and the title track are among the most fun I had with electronic music this year.
Spotify

50. Lustmord- Dark Matter

As a pioneer of dark ambient, Lustmord is no stranger to otherworldly atmospheres. However, Dark Matter takes that more literally. Lustmord’s latest is made up of deep space samples collected from NASA and other public libraries of astronomical sounds. It’s manipulated to fit a rhythm, but that there’s even a thought of musical time is deceptive. The whole album has great weight to it with how deep the samples are to being with, and how distorted Lustmord makes them. Listening to Dark Matter feels like pushing through a dense atmosphere in order to get to an open center. It’s hard to focus on its details at first because of the amount of feedback and rumbling surrounding it. Essentially, it’s the musical equivalent of exploring deep space.
Spotify

49. The Body & Full of Hell- One Day You Will Ache Like I Ache

One of the heaviest slow bands in music today (The Body) teams up with one of the heaviest fast bands in music today (Full of Hell). The result is an album that alternates between tense moments of drone and full on noise/industrial/powerviolence assault. The two artists work well off of each other, but The Body takes the lead in the slower sections, and Full of Hell’s added instrumentation and vocals work to build the tension and tease its more chaotic moments. Once those chaotic Full of Hell moments hit, The Body’s noise/drone works as a nice backdrop in the same way that Merzbow’s power electronics did on his Full of Hell collaboration a few years back. I wouldn’t say it’s the absolute best album in either band’s discography, but One Day You Will Ache Like I Ache is still a very good record that represents a slightly different brand of noise for both artists.
Spotify | Bandcamp

48. Jameszoo- Fool

The debut album from Dutch producer Jameszoo is full of surprises and is oozing with potential. His style mixes free jazz with wonky and different blends of electronic music into a sound he calls “naive computer jazz.” Fool is full of experimentation and strange sounds playing off one another, but the tracks come across as the right amount of challenging. There’s a lot wide ranging ideas here that come together in interesting and surprisingly approachable ways. Throughout the record, Jameszoo throws in dashes of bossa nova, g-funk, and even some sounds that I associate more with noise and musical concrete than anything in the electronic or jazz realm. At its core, this is an experimental record and an intriguing at that. It throws a lot at the wall and occasionally falls short, but the vast of majority of Fool makes for a fascinating listen.
Spotify

47. Denzel Curry- Imperial

There aren’t many trap albums I would praise for its flow and lyrics, but Denzel Curry’s Imperial is far from your normal trap album. Curry’s rapid fire flow is impressive to say the least, and he delivers his lines with intensity that both demands the listener’s attention and meshes perfectly with the 808s blaring behind him. The production is also a highlight, as the beats strike a nice mixture of raw and atmospheric. It provides a surprisingly nice canvas for Curry’s equally raw lyricism, while also helping to creature some catchy choruses. Imperial is the rare album that works both as a collection of trap bangers and as a collection of lyrical hardcore tracks. It simultaneously sounds like what trap could be in the hands of a great emcee and the natural evolution of hardcore hip-hop.
Spotify | Soundcloud | Hot New Hip-Hop (Download)

46. Motion Graphics- s/t

There’s something to be said for an album when my biggest criticism of it is that it’s far too short. Clocking in at just at 29 minutes, this inventive little glitch pop record left me wanting more like few other albums in 2016. It makes the most of its time, however, as there’s a ton on going in every track. Few songs have the same rhythm as the last, and while one section might sound like the synths of Oneohtrix Point Never mixed with Animal Collective, the next can bring in some glitchy RnB ala Clarence Clarity or even some classic Kraftwerk or Yellow Magic Orchestra influences. Despite its constant activity, nothing about Motion Graphics feels rushed. It gives off a chill vibe throughout and it uses its glitchier moments well to transition. All of this makes for a fantastic debut that positions Motion Graphics as a producer to watch moving forward.
Spotify

45. Sturgill Simpson- A Sailor’s Guide To Earth

While Sturgill Simpson’s major label debut sees him straying a little bit from his outlaw country roots, it’s hard to argue with the results. A Sailor’s Guide to Earth is Simpson’s most varied and accessible album to date, as its still rooted in the sound of Waylon Jennings and other outlaw artists, but takes more influence from soul, psychedelic rock, and pop music. It’s a wonderfully creative musical adventure full of brass instruments, keyboards, and synths with Sturgill’s southern voice booming over them. A Sailor’s Guide to Earth also acts a concept album with Simpson speaking directly to his young son about navigating his life through the metaphor of a ship sailing. It’s a tender lyrical album with beautiful and bold music around it, and it makes A Sailor’s Guide to Earth a landmark album for modern country.
Spotify

44. Fire! Orchestra- Ritual

Mats Gustafsson is now three albums deep into his experimental big band project, Fire! Orchestra, and Ritual sees him making meaningful changes its sound. The massive number of musicians has dropped from 29 to 21, and the songs are about the half the length of the 20+ minute epics found in the first two records. Still, this is a Mats Gustafsson record through and through, with deceptively catchy riffs juxtaposed with noise and moments of experimental clutter. For a musician known for making music as experimental as Gustafsson, Fire! Orchestra is quickly becoming one of his most organized projects. Maybe that’s out of necessity with the number of musicians involved, as it would be a mess otherwise, but Ritual is a very tight and focused jazz album.
Spotify

43. Furia- Księżyc milczy luty

Poland’s Furia has long been an underrated gem in the underground metal scene. With Księżyc milczy luty (translates to “Moon Silent Severe”), they’ve released one of the densest and most varied black metal albums of 2016. It takes awhile for the vocals to come in, and even when they do, they rarely have the roughness you might expect from black metal. Furia are most interested in atmosphere and there’s a bluesy power to both the vocals and the guitar work rarely found in the genre. In terms of mood, there’s a definite darkness to it, as well as a cold and haunting feeling. It moves slowly, almost at a drone or doom metal pace at times, and builds tension to its more chaotic parts. As a black metal album, it’s something far outside of the genre’s usual boundaries and much more minimalist. However, it’s heavy and focused enough to still please anyone but the most traditionalist of fans.
Bandcamp | Youtube

42. Crying- Beyond the Fleeting Gales

Power pop and chiptune are not exactly genres I frequent. That’s why Crying’s full length debut is one of 2016’s biggest surprises for me. There’s something just so infectious about Beyond the Fleeting Gales. From its gleefully upbeat pop melodies to its video game motifs that bring a smile to my face, everything about this album exudes happiness. It’s also an original take on the pop genre, and there’s a good amount of variety throughout its relatively brief run time. The chiptune influences aren’t overbearing, as the retro sound never dominate the production. It all comes together into a cohesive record, and one that is far more than the sum of its parts. This is one of my favorite debut albums of 2016, and it’s legitimately one of the fun things I listened to this year.
Spotify | Bandcamp

41. The Drones- Feelin Kinda Free

Feelin Kinda Free is a tense, experimental album from one of modern rock’s most interesting bands. Musically, it’s chaotic and feels all over the place, yet remains consistently interesting and works purely as an experimental post-punk album. However, the album’s tumultuous instrumentation meshes beautifully with the tense, misanthropic tone of the lyrics that deal with political turmoil, terrorism, and violence. That’s the success of Feelin’ Kinda Free. It’s works as both a political album and as an experimental rock album, and it’s a perfect example of using noise and harsh sounds to convey a deeper message. And the fact that (spoiler alert) Feelin Kinda Free is not the highest drone-influenced art rock album from an Australian band on my list this year is more a weird anomaly than any real indication of its quality.
Spotify

Next: The Top 100 Albums of 2016, Part 4 (40-21)

The Top 100 Albums of 2016, Part 2 (80-61)

Top 25 EPs
Top 100 Albums — Part 1 (100-81)

80. Neurosis- Fires Within Fires

For many years, Neuroris has been one of the most innovative bands in all of metal music. However, the atmospheric and slightly straightforward Fires Within Fires has the band spinning their wheels a bit. The final two tracks elevate things and the latter half is really the part of the album that shines. That’s where Neurosis proves once again that they can create subtle and sombre sludge that goes beyond the expectations of the genre. This is a band with an obviously slow and heavy sound, but they’ve always done a remarkable job of building tension and keeping the listener engaged. It’s a shame it takes so long to get to great parts of Fires Within Fires, but the latter half makes this album essential for sludge metal, and even Neurosis at their worst is better than the vast majority of the genre.
Spotify | Bandcamp

79.- Tomorrow the Rain Will Fall Upwards- Wreck His Days

Wreck His Days is much darker album than its water colored cover album art would suggest. At its core, this is an ambient dub and dark jazz record that glides along in a shroud of mystery. That mystery is aided by the anonymous nature of Tomorrow the Rain Will Fall Upwards, who has yet to reveal their identity. There’s a few known features (from HTRK’s Jonnine Standish and These Immortal Souls’ Genevieve McGuckin), but the only other sounds that can be traced to identifiable humans are vocal samples that show a working class rising up over gloomy synth loops. Wreck His Days is clearly a political album, with its samples taken mostly from feminist and socialist sources. However, the haunting synths and the space in between those samples give off the feeling that there’s more here than there first appears.
Spotify | Bandcamp

78. Mamiffer- The World Unseen

The husband and wife duo of Aaron Turner (Isis, Old Man Gloom) and Faith Coloccia have made a very pretty album in The World Unseen. It combines post-rock, drone, and dream pop into a lush and atmospheric package, and it’s honestly the first Mamiffer release that has grabbed me in awhile. This is partly because The World Unseen feels so focused towards its dreamy aesthetic, and partly because the emphasis on the drone and dream pop sides of Mamiffer are more prevalent here. There’s less guitar on this album in general, with piano taking over as the lead instrument. When the guitar does appear, it’s usually heavy and comes with a heavy dose of feedback and noise. That may not sound like the recipe for a “pretty” album, but The World Unseen never loses its dreamy ambiance, even in its darkest moments, and Coloccia’s vocal melodies feel like they’re softly floating through this dream.
Bandcamp

77. Winterhorde- Maestro

Winterhorde takes black metal to a place that feels almost at odds with the genre’s origins. As opposed to the often bleak, lo-fi nature of black metal, Maestro has melodic vocals with choirs, orchestral instruments, and rock opera writing. It’s a risky choice, but a good one. The vocals are powerful, the instrumentation is varied and technical, and it manages to keep its blackened roots among its symphonic chaos. Symphonic black metal is nothing new, but few other bands in that genre take influences from the modern wave of power and symphonic metal. Maestro sounds as much like Nightwish or Epica as it does Emperor, only much heavier than anything pure symphonic metal can offer. Somehow, someway, Winterhode have made a black metal opera. That’s pretty awesome.
Spotify | Bandcamp

76. case / lang / veirs- s/t

The first collaborative album between k.d. Lang, Neko Case, Laura Veirs is a successful one. All three artists bring their distinctive sounds to the table in a way that sounds more cohesive than I could have expected. The backgrounds of all three are varied, with indie pop, folk, and alt-country found throughout their discographies, and the album ends up as a beautiful mixture of those sounds. All three artists share vocal duties and they get the best results on the tracks where they trade off in more or less equal parts. However, even the tracks dominated by one singer/songwriter are well written and pleasant to listen. Most would be quality solo tracks by their respective artist, and those tracks are still made better by the presence of other two musicians.
Spotify

75. Ian William Craig- Centres

Ian William Craig packs a lot into Centres. I mean that both in terms of its length and the incredible amount of variety it contains for an album of its kind. Centres could most easily be described as an ambient or drone album, but that would be simplifying it. There are moments of extended tape loops that build to heavy drone and lush soundscapes, while there also sections that are more akin to ambient pop. Centres starts and ends with very different versions of the same track, with the opener sounding like an ultra-digitized and slowed down pop song and the later sounding almost like an acoustic demo from a singer/songwriter. The vocals, which are used sparingly, can take some getting used to, but they aren’t the focus. Like the tape music it’s influenced by, Centres is about the journey and how things change over time. It’s certainly active, and that works as both a strength and a weakness at times, but the payoff is ultimately worth it.
Spotify | Bandcamp

74. Injury Reserve- Floss

Arizona hip-hop trio Injury Reserve bring a ton of energy to their sophomore album, Floss. Rappers Steppa J. Groggs and Ritchie With a T frequently sound like they were shot out of a cannon as they flow over some fantastic production from Parker Corey. Many of the songs have laid back jazz beats, with a few heavier cuts as well. However, there’s energy throughout the whole record, as even the more relaxed beats are full of small intricacies. Some of the lyrics can be corny, but they’re more than made up for by incredibly witty ones. Lines like “Man, I’m dressed like Carlton / I’m the black Ben Carson” stand out more than the duds. Injury Reserve make it known that the want the industry to take notice, and if Floss is any indication, they’re on their way up.
Spotify | Soundcloud | Youtube | Download

73. Devin Townsend Project- Transcendence

Transcendence is the seventh Devin Townsend Project album since 2009, and at this point, fans of Devin Townsend know what to expect. Few artists in progressive music have successfully merged pop and progressive metal like Devin has, and the latest Project record feels like a natural step forward for the band. The core sound is intact, but there’s a lot more atmosphere this time around. Transcendence is a far dreamier and more abstract record than any other in Townsend’s discography, and his ridiculously varied vocal performance works perfectly with this newfound atmosphere. There’s some great instrumental work as well, with long, spacey solos that contrast nicely with some of the album’s heavier moments, and it never loses the sense of fun that Devin Townsend has always been known for.
Spotify

72. Oranssi Pazuzu- Värähtelijä

Värähtelijä is an album of special moments. It’s certainly flawed, as it’s a bit too long and doesn’t always play by its strengths, but there are times on here where Oranssi Pazuzu seems like they’ve really figured the whole psychedelic black metal thing out. The biggest difference between this and past Oranssi Pazuzu albums is that Värähtelijä follows less of a black metal structure and pulls more directly from psychedelic rock. The tracks here feel like long, hazy jam sessions with screams and metal aesthetics, but with the feel of psychedelic music at its core. They don’t try to be dynamic, as much as they snap the listener into a trance. Otherworldly space rock sounds help that as well. Again, not every moment of Värähtelijä nails that sound (otherwise it would likely be in my top 20), but even as a whole, this feels like a huge step in the right direction for psychedelic black metal.
Spotify | Bandcamp

71. Bat for Lashes- The Bride

The Bride presents a bit of a dichotomy for Natasha Khan. From a conceptual standpoint, The Bride is her most ambitious album yet. From a musical standpoint, it’s among her simplest. The story of the album involves a bride whose husband dies in a car crash on the way to the altar. That story is presented theatrically and with a great deal of subtlety in Khan’s performance. It’s clearly the focus of the record, and that combined with its dark and gloomy atmosphere is enough to carry it. Musically, The Bride moves slowly and exists somewhere between synthpop and Kate Bush-style art pop. It has quite a few ethereal passages as well, which helps create a sombre mood for the album’s story. Again, it’s not the most musically varied or complex thing in the world, but few 2016 albums told a better story than this one, and there’s some real beauty here as well.
Spotify

70. Marillion- Fuck Everyone and Run

In a year where progressive rock music was largely stuck in the past, I give Marillion a lot of credit for returning with a relevant album. F E A R is a very political record, broken up into three long sections, with a shorter track between each one. That format allows Marillion to tell a series of fairly detailed stories relating to the rise of hypernationalism, among other topics. There’s a part of me that felt a little weird hearing protest music in this style, but the lyrics on F E A R come across as genuine. It also manages to be far more than just a partisan album, as it’s more a plea for humanism than anything else, and lacks the smug attitude that made certain political tracks unbearable in 2016. F E A R is also very solid from a musical standpoint, with enough variety and technicality to please any fan of progressive music. It’s a return to the prog epics of yesteryear, not because it blatantly copies them, but because it actually has something to say and a story worth telling.
Spotify

69. SubRosa- For This We Fought the Battle of Ages

In the last few years, Utah’s SubRosa has quietly become of the one most distinct voices in sludge and doom metal. Their heavy use of violins and strong songwriting chops give their songs a great deal of power and emotion. This is on full display on For This We Fought the Battle of Ages, especially in its latter half. Few metal bands can create music that is simultaneously this heavier and this somber, and tracks like the closer “Troubled Cells” reach a level of emotional complexity than few doom metal bands can achieve. If you want your doom metal a little more orchestral, a little more gothic, and a lot more beautiful, SubRosa is a band you need to be listening to.
Spotify | Bandcamp

68. Paul Jebanasam- Continuum

Paul Jabanasam is quickly becoming a name to watch in drone music. His second solo album is three long glitchy drone tracks that largely sound like static coming from a reactor, yet still sound rooted in classic music. The static starts to get a bit heavier and more cinematic as it goes on, and that makes Continuum the type of album that gets more engaging as it progresses. As much as I like drone, I’ve heard far too many albums in the genre that lose steam and fail to make meaningful changes across the course of a full length project. That’s not to say Continuum is the most varied thing I’ve ever heard, but it has its sound and builds to a worthwhile conclusion without becoming tedious.
Spotify | Bandcamp | Soundcloud

67. Ulcerate- Shrines of Paralysis

Technical death metal seemed to be the metal trend of 2016. Ulcerate are certainly one of the reasons for its rise in popularity, and Shrines of Paralysis sits well above the vast majority of the tech death field. It’s not even that Ulcerate is more technical than their peers, although they are among the elites in that category, but more than the band are just better at writing songs. Their tracks are far more brutal, far more dynamic, and far more atmospheric than the norm for the genre. Their sound is chaotic, and Ulcerate waste no time building to their brutality. There are a few moments of pure atmosphere that break things up, but for the part this is a brutal assault throughout. It’s among the heaviest, most intense, and most technical metal albums of the year, and avoids the usual pitfalls of the tech death genre.
Spotify | Bandcamp

66. Yoshimi- Tokyo Restricted Area

First and foremost, Yoshimi’s Tokyo Restricted Area is a Dream Catalogue release that has nothing to do with vaporwave. Getting that out of the way, this is an atmospheric, almost ghostly ambient album that takes influence from equal parts industrial and trap music. There are traditional Japanese sounds in there as well, painting a picture of a futuristic Tokyo that is starting to become popular on the Dream Catalogue label. Still, this is a different take on that sound, with Yoshimi focusing more on the bleaker sides of the cyperpunk aesthetics. And in terms of the sound itself, I can’t say I’ve ever heard trap drums used quite like this. Tokyo Restricted Area an interesting album at the very least and one of the more original dark ambient records of 2016.
Spotify | Bandcamp

65. Wardruna- Runaljod – Ragnarok

For a band that started as a folk side project of infamous black metal band Gorgoroth, Wardruna has really comes into its own. Now down to just Gorgoroth’s Kvitrafn and vocalist Lindy Fay Hella, the duo has completed the third piece of Wardruna’s Runaljod trilogy with a new set of focus. There’s a unique epicness to Ragnarok that makes it sound like a Nordic folk album that learned from black metal. There’s frequent chanting and a heavy use of drone, but traditional Nordic instruments, children’s choirs, and nature sounds are used to great effect as well. This isn’t just a black metal album wit the heavy parts stripped away, nor does it sound like a non-folk artist trying to make an album outside their genre. Instead, Wardruna have come into their own and made one of the most epic sounding folk albums of recent years.
Spotify

64. King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard- Nonagon Infinity

Nonagon Infinity sure makes one hell of a first impression. This album starts out heavy and fuzzy right from the start, with no need for pointless intros or shenanigans. The hook of this record is that it can be listened to in a continuous gapless loop, and the songs are constructed with that in mind. Because of that, it’s not always the most varied record out there, but variety isn’t necessarily why you’re listening to a garage rock album anyway. King Glizzard focuses on a raw, destructive, and powerful aesthetic, and it makes Nonagon Infinity fun to listen to. This is the type of hard rocking garage record that has its sound, nails it, and never lets up. Literally.
Spotify | Bandcamp

63. Lord of the Isles- In Waves

There’s a lot to like about the full length debut from Lord of the Isles. In fact, there’s also a lot here in general, and at a nearly 80 minute run time, some of the fat could have been trimmed. Still, In Waves is a dreamy house record that is as much a dance soundtrack for under the stars as it is intricate headphone music. The dreamy atmosphere that Lord of the Isles produces makes this sound like neither human nor mechanical. That feeling extends throughout the record, despite a stylistic shift from deep to ambient from track to track. However, what impressed me most about In Waves is the way that it flows. This is a very active album that is all but flawless about its repetition. Sounds enter and exit at just the right time, and it’s not so much tension, but a sense of wonder about what’s next that keeps the listener engaged.
Spotify

62. Insomnium- Winter’s Gate

Since Winter’s Gate is a long single track melodic death metal album, it’s hard not to draw comparisons to Edge of Sanity’s classic Crimson. While Insomnium’s latest hasn’t exactly dethroned Dan Swano and company, they have created an ambitious album that takes influence from Crimson, while adding their own sound to their mix. Melodeath hasn’t been the most innovative genre in recent years, so it’s nice to see a band like Insomnium step out of their comfort zone. Part of that includes a return to acoustic sections that were prevalent in the early Gothenburg scene, while also using melodic solos and clean vocals that neatly break up the heavier parts. Winter’s Gate is also rich with detail and subtlety, something that has been sorely lacking from the genre in recent years. It’s not a complete overhaul for melodeath, but a nice return to its roots that has enough new ideas to move it forward.
Spotify | Youtube

61. Sarah Neufeld- The Ridge

Coming off a masterful collaborative effort with Colin Stetson, Sarah Neufeld takes a leap forward in her solo material with The Ridge. The most obvious difference is the addition of vocals. Neufeld isn’t the greatest vocalist I’ve heard, but she’s far better than I would expected from someone who is really only known as a violinist. At the very least, it adds a new dimension to the music that separates her from other modern classical composers. Drums are also a new addition, and while they can sound a little out of place at times, it adds some much needed intensity to parts of the record. Thankfully, the focus is still the violin, and that’s where Sarah Neufeld shines. She’s an impressive violinist, but also a strong composer. There’s obvious influence from her partner, Colin Stetson, but The Ridge sees Neufeld really coming her into own as a solo artist. It’s more accessible and more original than her debut, and there’s simply a lot of beauty to be found on this album.
Spotify | Soundcloud

Next: The Top 100 Albums of 2016, Part 3 (60-41)

The Top 100 Albums of 2016, Part 1 (100-81)

Now here’s the big one…

First, a disclaimer. This list is ordered based on how I felt about these albums during my time working this project. I probably spent too much time moving albums around as I wrote, and could easily have spent more. These are all albums I enjoyed and my goal is more to celebrate a great year in music and provide recommendations than argue about how one album is better than another.

This was also a tough list to narrow down. For all of the problems 2016 had, a lack of great music wasn’t one of them. We certainly had our fair share of death in the music world, a sentiment reflected in many albums this year, but purely from an artistic standpoint, 2016 was a great year for music.

Thank you for reading, and please let me know what you think in the comments or on Twitter @BryceJMurphy.

Also, you can check at my Top 25 EPs list right HERE

100. Atmosphere- Fishing Blues

Fishing Blues is a bit of a return to form for Atmosphere. Slug’s vocals still sound like a relic from early 2000’s underground hip-hop, but in terms of lyrics and production, this is the most inspired the influential duo has sounded in nearly a decade.
Spotify | Bandcamp

99. Blank Banshee- MEGA

Blank Banshee takes maximalism to its extreme, with just about every measure of MEGA changing from one strange hybird of trap, glitch, vaporwave, ambient, or electronic to another. It’s not always the easiest thing to listen to, and I sometimes wish ideas were given a little more time to breathe, but the sheer amount of unique and interesting sounds on this thing make it hard to put down.
Spotify | Bandcamp (Name-Your-Price)

98. Wovenhand- Star Treatment

David Eugene Edwards has slowly abandoned the gothic country that his band 16 Horsepower pioneered, as each release with his Wovenhand solo project goes farther into psychedelic rock and folk territory. Star Treatment continues that trend, with Edwards rough yet powerful voice working in tandem over the dark and fuzzy instrumentation.
Spotify | Bandcamp

97. Youandewan- There is No Right Time

Youandewan has amassed a large amount of EPs and singles over the years, but There is No Right Time is proof that he can handle a full length release as well. This is a nice collection of a deep house cuts, many of which teeter on the line between being fun dance numbers and cerebral headphone music. A few tracks venture far outside of house music, with mixed results, but there’s some real gems here that make it a great listen.
Spotify | Bandcamp

96. OvO- Creatura

“Avant-garde metal” is often attributed to any sort of metal that goes against the genre’s grain, but few bands earn that label like Italy’s OvO. At its core, Creatura is a noisy industrial metal record with experimental influences aplenty. There are screams on here that sound like someone is in real, physical pain, while the instrumentation goes crazy between electronic, noise, industrial, and metal. It’s strictly for fans of heavy experimental music, but I doubt anyone making this record was going for accessibility.
Spotify | Bandcamp

95. Evy Jane- Breaking

Evy Jane’s Breaking is the dreamy Blade Runner-esque pop album I always kind of knew I wanted. The vocals soar over the ghostly downtempo beats that borrow from the recent trend of darker R&B. It’s lush and beautiful, but without being overwhelming. That is to say, there’s a great deal of mystery and subtlety to Breaking and it creates one hell of an atmosphere.
Spotify

94. Moor Mother- Fetish Bones

The debut album from Moor Mother is without a doubt the most unsettling hip-hop album I listened to in 2016. Lyrically, Fetish Bones is an aggressive politically charged album that deals with difficult topics right off the bat. Musically, it unsettles as well, with an industrial sound that rarely ever falls into a steady beat. It’s an intense listen, but there’s real passion and relevance underneath the noisy exterior, and the production is among the harshest and most interesting I’ve hard in industrial hip-hop.
Spotify | Bandcamp

93. Ihsahn- Arktis

Emperor’s prolific frontman moves farther into the progressive metal genre with Arktis, his most streamlined yet polished solo album to date. The songs are varied and aided by a healthy roster of guest spots, and there’s quite a few catchy moments for an album made by a black metal legend. This is Ihsahn at his most approachable, but not at the expensive of the songwriting that has made him great for so long.
Spotify

92. São Paulo Underground- Cantos invisíveis

Rob Mazurek’s São Paulo Underground has never been a particularly accessible group, but they’ve really upped the chaos on Cantos invisíveis. The album mixes the group’s usual avant-garde jazz, electronic, and world music, but instruments often feel like they are fighting against each other more so than on past São Paulo Underground records. It can be overwhelming at times, but the highlights (namely the fantastic 13+ minute opener and closer) make it worth the rough patches for fans of experimental music.
Bandcamp

91. Bombino- Azel

Nigerien guitarist Bombino brings his blend of tishoumaren (Tuareg blues rock) music to the West with Azel, his second album to be produced in North America. Fans of Tinariwen will instantly recognize the style, but Bombino stands out with his exceptional technical playing and some fantastic production that makes the Tuareg sound pop in ways we’ve rarely heard.
Spotify | Bandcamp

90. Julianna Barwick- Will

Will is another gorgeous ambient pop album from Julianna Barwick. Much of the music comes from simple synths, keys, strings, and Barwick’s vocals. Her voice is beautiful on its own, but it’s often soaked in reverb here to the point where it’s hard to differentiate it from the synths around it. This one is all about the atmosphere and it’s hard not to drift away listening to it.
Spotify

89. Saor- Guardians

Saor’s Guardians isn’t a massive step forward for the Scottish metal band, but their combination of atmospheric black metal and Celtic folk music is still captivating. The band’s songwriting can get a little predictable, with each song following a similar pattern over 10-11 minutes, but that’s more than made up for with some truly breathtaking moments. Few metal bands can even hope to have the kind of atmosphere Saor attains so effortlessly.
Spotify | Bandcamp

88. The Avalanches- Wildflower

It took 16 years for The Avalanches to release their sophomore album, and needless to say, Wildflower is not as revolutionary as Since I Left You. Still, this is a fun sample-heavy record that evokes the early 2000s of dance music without sounding completely dated. Even 16 years later, The Avalanches have a sound that make it easy to dance to, a production style that keeps things unpredictable, and a sense of humor that keeps things fun. Adding to that humor, Danny Brown appears a few times to tell us which drugs he’s been doing lately (spoiler: it’s all of them).
Spotify

87. BADBADNOTGOOD- IV

For a band that got their start (brilliantly) making jazz covers of hip-hop songs, BADBADNOTGOOD have adapted well to writing original material. Their fourth album is rich with features, as Colin Stetson, Mick Jenkins, Kaytranada and others lend their talents to their record. Those wide range of guests take BADBADNOTGOOD’s sound into some interesting directions, as we now get to hear R&B and rap over their hip-hop and electronic-inspired jazz fusion. The results are mostly solid, and the band’s original and ultra accessible core sound is still as strong as ever.
Spotify | Bandcamp

86. Anderson .Paak- Malibu

Anderson .Paak broke through in a big way in 2016 and it’s easy to see why. Malibu is a fun and playful album that blends R&B, hip-hop, and soul and shows off Paak’s exceptional talent as a singer, rapper, and producer. Anderson’s distinct and passionate voice comes through most comfortably as a singer, but he holds his own as a rapper alongside strong guest verses from Talib Kweli and Schoolboy Q, among others. It’s an impressive debut that shows a lot of promise for the future, and more than anything, it shows a talented new artist who sounds like he’s having the time of his life recording. That makes his music all the more infectious.
Spotify

85. King Goat- Conduit

Neither doom metal nor progressive metal were ripe with original material in 2016, but King Goat found a way to simultaneously breathe new life into both genres. Their debut album, Conduit, takes many of its riffs from the relics of doom, but infuses it with progressive vocals, melodies, and solos. The combination works shockingly well, as both influences are obvious in King Goat’s sound, and much of Conduit really feels like a smart blend of those two styles. There’s even some throat singing here and there to go along with a few experimental touches, and it all adds up to one of the most promising metal debuts of the year.
Spotify | Bandcamp

84. Jeff Rosenstock- Worry

I fully admit that I’m not the biggest fan of power pop or pop punk, so a lot of the nostalgia this album is going for is lost on me. If you are bigger Weezer fan, for example, you will probably love this. Still, even I enjoyed Jeff Rosenstock’s clever lyrics and appropriately snobbish delivery about life as a 30-something in modern middle class society. The power pop instrumentals build nicely, turning into heavier punk when the emotions of the songs reach their most passionate. Most of all, Worry is a funny and well written album, presented in an unlikely style that somehow still works in 2016.
Spotify | Bandcamp

83. Aluk Todolo- Voix

France’s Aluk Todolo continue their streak of solid krautrock/black metal hybrids with Voix, an album that turns down some of the black metal and heightens the kraut, psychedelic, and drone parts of their music. Voix feels like a throwback to the days of Neu! and other instrumental krautrock acts, but with modern influences that do just enough to make it fresh. The album sounds like one long track and is deceptive in how dynamic it actually is. The instrumentation is constantly changing and all over the place, but Aluk Todolo do an excellent job of making their compositions sounds almost trance-like. It certainly won’t be for everyone, but in terms of psychedelic rock in 2016, few albums did it better or more distinctly than Voix.
Spotify | Bandcamp

82. Okkyung Lee & Christian Marclay- Amalgam

Amalgam is an improvised live performance from cellist Okkyung Lee and producer Christian Marclay. Both performers are accomplished experimental musicians, and both have experience working with roughly textured, noisy music. Lee’s cello is about the least comforting I’ve ever heard from a string instrument, as it’s often played with harshness in mind. Marclay’s samples are much of the same, with noise drops and abrasive clashes. The two musicians sound like they are fighting each other for dominance for about half of the record and then suddenly click together to creature a true cacophonous mess of strings, scratches, samples, and noise.
Spotify | Bandcamp

81. Thee Oh Sees- A Weird Exits

Adding a second drummer turned out to be a great decision for Thee Oh Sees. A Weird Exits is the best album they’ve put out in a long time (maybe ever), and so much of it has to do with their percussion. Long instrumental segments are rare in garage rock, but they’re used frequently here, allowing the band to explore crazy drum patterns and swirling psychedelic rhythms. It’s the type of psychedelic album that doesn’t overwhelm or present a great deal of noise, but lures you in with playful rhythms and moments of catchiness. A Weird Exits is not necessarily as weird as its album title would suggest, but it is an entertaining album that works as a throwback to both 90s garage rock and 70’s psychedelic and krautrock.
*not currently streaming*

Next: The Top 100 Albums of 2016, Part 2 (80-61)

The Top 25 EPs of 2016

It’s that time of the year again. 2015 was the first year in a while I was without a radio show to fill my musical countdown void. So this year, sometimes against my better judgement, I decided to embark on another large writing project to celebrate some of the music that stuck with me most in 2016.

Throughout the next week I will be counting down my 100 favorite albums of the year, 20 albums at a time, but we start today with a list of my 25 favorite EPs.

Thank you for reading, and please let me know what you think in the comments or on Twitter @BryceJMurphy.

25. Chino Amobi- Airport Music for Black Folk

Airport Music for Black Folk is apparently a tribute to six cities Chino Amobi has traveled to in Europe. How exactly the tracks relate to the cities isn’t immediately apparent, but the harsh industrial beats, heavily manipulated vocals, and general craziness of the music makes this one interesting.
Spotify | Bandcamp (Name-Your-Price) | Soundcloud

24. Steven Wilson- 4 ½

4 ½ is a nice a collection of holdover tracks from former Porcupine Tree frontman Steven Wilson. At 37 minutes, it’s almost a full length, but feels more like a compilation than anything else. Each song feels self contained, but the tracks themselves are fleshed out and feel like more than just album extras.
*not currently streaming*

23. Dead Congregation- Sombre Doom

Greek death metal band Dead Congregation have always had strong doom influences in their music, but they up it significantly in this EP. Because of this, Sombre Doom moves at a slower pace, but it’s still as dark and heavy as the usual Dead Congregation release. Anyone into death doom metal should give both this band and this EP a listen.
Bandcamp | Youtube

22. Zamilska- UNDONE

Zamilska’s UNDONE is not your typical industrial techno release. It’s not as fast, as brutal, or as instantly danceable as a lot of other records in its genre, as Zamilska instead places an emphasis on more subtle, darker textures. She also tends to layer her tracks with vocal samples, often in a way that leads to intentional clutter. That approach helps UNDONE stand out in a crowded industrial techno field.
Spotify | Bandcamp

21. Benoît Pioulard- Thine

Seattle’s Benoît Pioulard has removed a lot of the dream pop from his sound that first drew me to him, but Thine is proof that he can still create beautiful textures as purely an ambient/drone producer. All three songs are minimalist in their composition, but it’s interesting to hear field recordings and nature sounds mix with Pioulard’s voice.
Bandcamp

20. Hidden Orchestra- Wingbeats

The main attraction of Hidden Orchestra’s Wingbeats is the gorgeous 12 minute title track, which takes a sample of birds chirping and puts the sound of a slow building jazz symphony around it. The rest of the EP consists more of experiments, with the same bird sample being played over a variety of different instruments in shorter doses. Those tracks are interesting, but it’s the first one that I kept coming back to.
Spotify

19. Grischa Lichtenberger- Spielraum

I’m not sure I heard a more digital sounding record in 2016 than Spierlraum. Grischa Lichenberger uses a heavy dose of glitch and Autechre-influenced IDM to create what sounds like the inner workings of a computer. It sounds so distinctly inhuman that it could easily be interpreted as a bunch of random sounds organized by something digital, yet it somehow forms into compelling and atmospheric electronic.
Spotify

18. Moses Sumney- Lamentations

Moses Sumney is a talented singer with a one-of-a-kind voice. His rough yet passionate falsetto would sound appropriate on both folk and soul tracks, so it’s even more appropriate the music on Lamentations strikes a balance between the two. The Thundercat-featured “Lonely World” is the highlight of the EP, showing off Sumney’s chilling vocals off the record’s most intricate and atmospheric instrumentation.
Spotify

17. The Sad Bastard Book Club- And the Sirens Sang of a Time When There Were No Foghorns

The Sad Bastard Book Club are not an easy band to describe, but their sound makes perfect sense with their influences. This EP takes influences from gothic country, americana, post-rock, and doom metal. That may sound like a weird combination, but The Sad Bastard Book Club merge it in a way that makes it approachable. This is an EP that feels authentic with its country roots, but branches out into an eclectic sound. It’s dark, but not overly so, and it does something different in the gothic county genre.
Bandcamp (Name-Your-Price)

16. Rome- Coriolan

Rome’s Coriolan feels like a full length album condensed into 25 minutes, with a lengthy intro and outro and a middle that tells the story of Roman general Gaius Marcius Coriolanus. It’s a lot for an EP, and honestly feels too brief for what it’s trying to accomplish. However, Rome has never been your typical folk artist, and his original mix of neofolk, post-punk and martial industrial, combined with his deep vocals, make this one great. There’s a lot variety here in a short amount of time, and songs like the title track are among the heaviest and catchiest in Rome’s discography.
Spotify

15. Amnesia Scanner- AS

Here’s a crazy one. Amnesia Scanner take danceable beats from a variety of different electronic styles, make them super glitchy with heavy industrial drops, and distort/repeat vocal samples in a way that all but removes it from the dance roots of the rhythms. Because of that, AS can be challenging to listen to at times, but also a ton of fun if you’re into experimental music. It’s completely unpredictable, but still feels like a dance album deep down. Very deep down.
Spotify

14. Floating Points- Kuiper

There’s something about the rhythm of krautrock that just makes me feel great. It’s an almost trance-inducing rhythm, and it’s fantastic to hear producers embrace it in modern electronic music. With the 18 minute title track of Kuiper, Floating Points uses krautrock beautifully, as he mixes it with elements of jazz and ambient music. The second track, “For Marmish Pt.2” is more ambient and takes a bit of time to get going, but has some gorgeous moments once it does This is a long EP, but a nice one-two punch of a very different tracks from a talented producer.
Spotify (Part 1) | Spotify (Part 2) | Soundcloud (Part 1) | Soundcloud (Part 2)

13. G.L.O.S.S.- Trans Day of Revenge

I loved G.L.O.S.S.’s debut demo last year, and Trans Day of Revenge does not disappoint as a follow-up. Much of what I wrote about that demo last year still applies this time around. The vocals are still raw and passionate and the instrumentation is still fast and heavy. The production is a little better on this one, but musically, it’s more of the same. Thankfully, that’s exactly what I wanted from G.L.O.S.S.
Bandcamp

12. Imperial Triumphant- Inceste

Imperial Triumphant are one of black metal’s craziest bands, and Inceste is more of what made Abyssal Gods one of my top 3 albums of 2015.Much like that record, Inceste is all about dissonance, heavy and complex riffs that sound like they could go off the rails at any point, and a dark, lo-fi production that evokes the traditions of black metal. Essentially, this is an an avant-garde black metal release that nails both the “avant-garde” and the “black metal.”
Spotify | Bandcamp

11. serpentwithfeet- blisters

Having produced for everyone from sludge metal band The Body to experimental pop star Björk, The Haxan Cloak has become a go-to name for anyone who wants to add some darkness to whatever genre they make. It’s no surprise that his magic applies to R&B as well. serpentwithfeet’s dark style of R&B/art pop is accompanied by production that is minimalist and almost-drone like at times, while heavier and symphonic in spots as well. This results in a dark atmosphere that lets serpentwithfeet’s equally dark lyrics take center stage, and a record that is among R&B’s most original in 2016.
Spotify

10. Willow- Workshop 23

It’s a good thing that Willow is more creative at producing than she is at naming songs (or albums, as Workshop 23 is the 23rd release from Workshop Records). Its name might make it easy to miss, but Workshop 23  deserves an audience. It’s  a wonderfully atmospheric collection of deep house tunes that isn’t afraid to go outside of house’s usual confines. The tracks build slowly, as parts of the records are composed with a minimalist aesthetic, but the result is a chill vibe that Willow hits consistently. There are some great vocal loops here as well, as Willow’s voice blends perfectly into her atmospheric beat work. It’s fantastic stuff and cements Willow as a producer to watch for the future.
Spotify | Soundcloud

9. Zammuto- Veryone

Veryone is a strange EP, but one that puts a smile on my face whenever I listen to it. Digitized spoken word samples are used and repeated throughout the album, reminiscent of something Negativland or People Like Us would do. However, Veryone is also whimsical and upbeat, both in its vocal samples and the instrumentation behind them. Much of this wouldn’t be out of place on an indie electronic record, but the vocals take it somewhere completely outside the box. I wish it were a little longer than 10 minutes, but for while it lasts, Veryone makes for a fun and often funny use of plunderphonics.
Spotify | Bandcamp

8. Lakker- Struggle & Emerge

I’m not sure there’s an artist who gets more tension out of industrial techno than Lakker. Unlike many records in the genre, Struggle & Emerge doesn’t try to pound your face in with noise, but instead slowly make you uncomfortable. Its slow drone is often at odds with the fast rhythm of its beat, which helps create that tension and unease. And for certain moments, this record will break out into heavy noise. It’s just more methodical about doing so, and it can also show an incredible amount of ambiance. Its samples come entirely from field recordings (mostly from bodies of water) and news reports, which only add to the uneasiness.
Spotify | Bandcamp

7. Vince Staples- Prima Donna

After a strong full length debut in 2015, Vince Staples returns with an EP that once again show off his one-of-a-kind flow and deceptively dark lyricism. No I.D. and DJ Dahi return from Summertime ’06 to handle production duties, with James Blake adding a few tracks as well. This results with an electric mix of beats that all have some energy behind them. They act as the perfect backdrop for Staples’ flow, which strikes a remarkable balance between smooth and aggressive. Both that flow and production make Prima Donna easy to enjoy, and the depth of Vince’s lyrics make it worth coming back for.
Spotify | Soundcloud

6. Massive Attack- Ritual Spirit

While Massive Attack have released a number of great tracks in the last decade or so, it’s no secret that the group’s best work is well behind them. However, Ritual Spirit trims a lot of the filler that has been present on recent albums and gives us a good, solid taste of what creative trip-hop can be in 2016. All four songs feature guest vocals, ranging from frequent collaborator Tricky to the more recent Young Fathers. All four of those features work and sound distinct from one and another. It’s a testament to how varied Massive Attack have always been, as they start the record by moving from a fun UK hip-hop track to a gorgeous downtempo pop song. This is a great EP and among the most consistent projects Massive Attack have put out in a very long time.
Spotify

5. clipping.- Wriggle

After winning a Tony award for his work on the Hamilton musical, Daveed Diggs returns to his experimental roots. Wriggle is clipping. at its noisiest and most aggressiveness, with lyrics that frequently reference kinky sex acts over noise drops and industrial hip-hop beats. Few hip-hop groups can make music with as much raw aggression as clipping. can, and Daveed Diggs’ rapid fire flow just keeps more and more ridiculous. The title track is especially crazy, turning Whitehouse’s “Wriggle Like a Fucking Eel” into a song about stripping. That track has some of the fastest rapping I’ve heard all year, over a harsh and aggressive beat that fits its subject matter. clipping. also released a great full length album this year called Splendor & Misery. That album shows the more intelligent, reserved side of clipping., while Wriggle is them at them at their most raw and nasty.
Spotify | Bandcamp | Youtube

4. Gorguts- Pleiades’ Dust

Pleiades’ Dust had to be a challenging record for Gorguts to make. Death metal is not typically a genre associated with 30+ minute tracks, and simply extending a death metal song for that long would get boring fast. Thankfully, Pleiades’ Dust is a constantly changing track that expands on Gorguts’ sound from 2013’s Colored Sands and adds in some new ideas. There are more moments of overwhelming dissonance, contrasted by ambient sections that break the death sections up nicely. However, those ambient sections do more than just act as glorified track changers. Gorguts will return to previous ideas and build upon previous death metal sections in interesting ways that take advantage of its single track format. Essentially, Gorguts have made long-from technical death metal, and against all odds, it works.
Spotify | Bandcamp | Youtube

3. Jefre Cantu-Ledesma- In Summer

Rarely have I heard noise music as beautiful as this or ambient music as dynamic as what’s found on In Summer. Jefre Cantu-Ledesma packs a ton of a variance into 24 minutes, creating dreamy ambient music that ventures into noise, drone, and shoegaze. The two highlights, “Love’s Refrain” and “Blue Nudes (I-IV)” evoke the feeling of listening to a summer tape, with skips, sudden stops, and interrupting noises, but an overall melody that is simply stunning and only grows more intense as the songs continues to build. The rest of the EP is filled with more challenging experimental tracks that go into more intense and often less rhythmic noise. Those are interesting as well, and their cacophony breaks up the dreaminess of the longer tracks. That dichotomy is the crux of the In Summer, as it’s simultaneously one of the most beautiful records I heard in 2016, while also being one of its most chaotic.
Spotify | Bandcamp

2. Mélanie de Biasio- Blackened Cities

Belgium’s Mélanie de Biasio is a bit of a throwback. She has a voice that wouldn’t sound out of place with in the peak of vocal jazz, 50 years ago, and critics have compared her to Billie Holiday because of that. While Holiday reaches a special level that goes beyond comparison for me, de Biasio’s smokey voice has a subtle power to it that does remind of what I love about that era of jazz. Instrumentally, Blackened Cities, is much more modern, however. The entire EP is a single 25 minute track that has long instrumental segments, and takes influences from post-rock, dark jazz, and ambient music. It’s a gorgeous combination and a very unique for long-form jazz. It’s also a format that allows the instrumentals to shine and de Biasio’s vocals to make a huge impact when they appear. Her delivery has an intimate feel to it, and the record as a whole has a feeling of wandering into a small jazz club past midnight.
Spotify | Bandcamp

1. Moro- San Benito

There is a beautiful album at the surface of San Benito that celebrates the culture and roots of Argentina. However, layered over the top is the harshness of its political history. Samples include rabid dogs barking, swords slashing, human screams, missiles, and reoccurring sounds of water. Many of those water samples are violent, bringing with them the themes of destruction and power, but they’re contrasted by the moments of peace that the ocean can bring as well. This is interlaced (or often forced) over beats that Moro self-describes as “ramba,” a mixture of rhythms from Argentinian, Uruguayan, and Cuban music. It’s a powerful combination, both the sense of how harsh its sounds are and in what those sounds mean. San Benito is an intriguing musical experiment that successfully blends genres, but it’s also more much than that. It’s the EP that stuck with me most in 2016, and I recommend it highly to anyone with a passing interest in experimental, industrial, or world music.
Spotify | Bandcamp | Soundcloud

Honorable Mentions:
Better Person- It’s Only You
Kyoka- SH
Lorenzo Senni- Persona
Mondkopf- The Last Tales
Oil Thief- In the Heat
Signor Benedick the Moor- Maiden Voyage Suite
Tombs- All Empires Fall

Next: The Top 100 Albums of 2016 (Part 1, 100-81)